The FACT remains though that the US was not militarily defeated in any of those wars and was completely and utterly dominant on the battlefield, which IS an obviously uncommon and asterisk-worthy way to “lose” a war, lol. In both Vietnam and Afghanistan American forces were no longer even involved, the governments simply weren’t competent enough to stand on their own without the US holding their hand. So we “lost” because our preferred government lost in the end, rendering the effort meaningless. The fact that the difference between Afghanistan standing or falling in a week was the presence of a few thousand American soldiers is actually an epic testament about the effectiveness of American forces there. So, while it’s fun for people that hate America to brag that the US “lost”, the reality is we just couldn’t babysit our friends forever. And the real losers were the people of Vietnam and Afghanistan.